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F-15 pilot in crash released from hospital

BOSS, Mo. — The pilot who ejected himself from an F-15C Air National Guard jet that crashed in rural south-central Missouri was released Saturday from the hospital.

The man, a 10-year veteran of the guard whose name and rank were not released, suffered a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm and minor cuts and bruises, the Missouri National Guard said in a news release Saturday.

The fighter jet crashed Friday morning in a wooded area near the small, unincorporated community of Boss in Dent County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said no buildings were hit and no one on the ground was injured. The one-seat plane, a 1980 model worth about $40 million, was from the Missouri Air National Guard’s 131st Fighter Wing, based at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Col. Robert Leeker, commander of the 131st Fighter Wing, said Friday the plane had been among four planes that split into pairs and engaged in one-on-one training fights in which speeds of 400 to 450 mph are typical. The other planes returned safely.

An Air Force investigative report is due in 60 days. Leeker declined to speculate on what might have caused the accident beyond noting there was no contact between the downed plane and its partner in the mock fight.

The plane crashed on private property surrounded by the Mark Twain National Forest.

Another Missouri Air National Guard fighter crashed in May after taking off from Lambert. That fighter, an F-15D, had been conducting drills about eight miles south of Vincennes, Ind., when a jammed cable caused the two-seater plane to crash, according to an Air Force report released last month.

The pilot, a veteran of 15 years of flying, was able to eject and had only minor injuries. No one on the ground was hurt. The plane, valued at $43.7 million, was destroyed.

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